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SPEECH 



Hon, MILTON S. LATHAK*^' 



OF CALIFORNIA, 



Delivered in the U. S. Senate, February 1, 1861, 



Presidents Message, — - The Mis&ion of Pence from Virc/mia" 



WASHING T O N : 

PRINTED BY HENRY POLK IN HORN, 

18C1. 



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V 



SPEECH 



The Senate re.-uined the consideration of the iiisssase of the President of the United States, communicated 
,10 the_"Senate on tiie isth instant, llie pending question being on the inotion of Mr. Mason' to print ezira numbers 

Mr. LATHAM said : 

Mr. President, I have heretofore studiou.s!y avoided referring to the present 
unhappy condition of our Country. Nothing which a representative from Cali- 
fornia could have said, would allay a fraction of the prevalent excitement, or per- 
suade Senators to follow the path of patriotic duty. 

That State has no immediate vital connection with the irritatiua cause the con- 
sequeaces of which are now before the American people, excepting the deep in- 
terest her citizens naturally feel in the integrity of a country and a nationality 
as dear to and as much valued by them as by any other portion of the Confed- 
eracy. Enjoying an immunity from the horrors so graphically depicted by Sena- 
tors, to which we seem inevitably drifting, lying peacefully in the arms of the great 
Sierra Nevadas which encircle her, she contemplates, dispassionately, the dangers 
encompassing the nation's pathway, and the many remedies proposed. I consci- 
entiously desire to speak with her voice, and to act as I believe by her dictation, 
upon the present or future events. 

Melancholy as it is, di.sunion — a word which, some thirty years ago, the im- 
mortal Calhoun did not venture to pronounce, a thing which even the boldest 
among us scarcely ventured to infer, and which was inferred rather in terrorem 
than with any expectation of realization — has now become familiar to American 
ears as household words. iMen who would have shuddered at the whisper ten 
years ago, are now compelled to grapple with it hand to hand, to calculate the 
greater or less disastrous consequences which must follow in the train of that, so 
terrible a catastrophe. What but a short time ago was the midnight dream of a 
few isolated men, has now become a fearful noon-day reality, with which we have 
to deal as men and legislators. It is needless, now, to regret ; to review the 
steps and measures, the men or parties, by which this monsti-ous change in the 
hearts of so great a portion of our country-men has been brought about, — to make 
this or that man responsible for the mischief. These empty seats too plainly tell 
us that the evil is upon us, and we must palliate or arrest it as we may. 

It is impossible to deny that the ties of fraternity which once bound the States 
as a nation have been loosened, if not altogether broken : that men heretofore 
counted as patriots, north and south, are looking upon our Federal Government 
either as tyrawnical and unjust, or as too weak and powerless to afford them ade- 
quate protection of life and property ; and we have arrived at that period in our 



brief national bistor}', wbcn our free institutions, instead of inspiring confidence, 
strike terror and dismay into nearly one-balf tbe Confederacy of States. 

Yaiti is tbe endeavor to calm tbe excitement, or to allay tbe apprebensions of 
our bretbren, by assuring them that there is no new cause for such alarm. Our 
people belong to a race of men not easily terrified by phantoms of danger, mere 
creations of a feverish brain, Tbey are accustomed to look realities in tbe face — 
to go half-way to meet them. It is this very characteristic of our people which 
increases the difficulties of the situation, by affording us too little time for con- 
sideration and deliberate action. 

The South feel less indignant, perhaps, at the wrongs which have been actually 
committed, than apprehensive of others which may be perpetrated at a time not 
far distant ; and they are as men resolved to meet the issue at the very threshold. 
They protest against the theory of wrong ; against any interpretation of the Con- 
stitution which threatens their vested rights ; and against the exercise of every 
power not surrounded by those checks and balances which they deem indispen- 
sable to liberty, equality, and safety in tbe Union. As far as this mode of rea- 
soning goes, considering their standpoint, I cannot altogether condemn, though 
I might not be willing to follow it, to all the direful consequences. I am willing to 
admit, however, as they boldly assert, that there is cause for apprehension — room 
for action ; the proper question for our consideration being, to what extent are 
these apprehencions justified, and within what reasonable and just limits ought 
tbe action of States to be confined at this momentous period. 

I do not propose to discuss tbe doctrine of secession, as to my mind a greater 
political paradox was never uttered, than asserting the constitutional right of a 
State to secede. Its fallacy has been clearly and unanswerably demonstrated 
by the distinguished Senators from Illinois [Mr. Douglas] and Tennessee, [Mr* 
Johnson ;] and nothing else can be added to their lucid exposition. The doc- 
trine enunciated by the distinguished Senator from Louisiana, [Mr. Benjamin,] 
that the States, in forming the Constitution, having failed in express terms to 
delegate such power as would make the Union permanent, each State has, there- 
fore, among its reserved powers the right of withdrawal at pleasure, is to my 
mind equally untenable. I admit, as a general proposition, for nothing is truer, 
that whatever political power is not granted by the Constitution is reserved to 
the States ; but this reservation cannot include what is at once destructive of 
the powers expressly granted. True, there is no power expressed in the Con- 
stitution whereby tbe States severally part with all right of withdrawing from 
the Union when they singly or collectively deem their rights trampled upon 
and their interests violated ; but because not so expressed, it does not necessa- 
rily follow that it is a reserved right, for tbe reason that such a reservation 
would be at variance with, and destructive of, all tbe other powers expressed. 
It is saying Government, no Government; it ig political life and death existing 
and ruling at the same time, in one and the same body. 

Nor do I propose discussing tbe " right of revolution," as tl^e distinguished 
Senator from Georgia, not now in his seat, [Mr. Toombs,] boldly and properly 



called the action of South Carolina and his own State. That is a right iniiorent 
in man ; but also a right which must be denied by every existing Grovernmen , 
unless it be willing to sign and execute its own death warrant. Neither shall I 
attempt to justify those who make revolutions ; because all such attempts have 
reference to the morality and the necessity of the act. Revolutions and revo- 
lutionary leaders are judged by history ; not by civil or military tribunals, 
though these may take away life and property ; by posterity, not by cotempora- 
ries. We may, in a historical sense, speak of the causes an d probable conse- 
quences of revolutions ; but the question of right depends on the issue of the 
trial, and involves nothing less than the success or defeat of those engaged, and 
the respective posit^ns of the accused and their judges. 

The framers of our Constitution, no doubt, intended to establish a Government^ 
and for that reason they could not make provision for its spontaneous destruc- 
tion. Neither could they have seriously entertained the idea of coercion, as it 
is generally understood and applied by Senators on thjs door, which would have 
been tantamount to their providing for civil war. The very Declaration of In- 
dependence says that all just authority is derived from the consent of the gov. 
erned, and not from the means the Government may hold at its disposal to en- 
force obedience to its decrees. Our Government is one of reason, of voluntary 
submission to constitutional authority, depending for strength and cohesion upon 
the affection of the people, and on that just and wise administration of public 
affairs which makes it the intercut of States and individuals to uphold and pro- 
tect it. The framers of the Constitution thought of no other means of perpet- 
uating the Government they had established : and left it, by that sublime omis- 
sion, no otlier alternative but to be just, or to perish. 

As a check on revolutions, they relied on the loyalty of the States and inter- 
est of the people, on their attachment to the Government of their own choice, 
and on their conviction that it was the very best Government possible for mortal 
man to establish, because most efficient in securing the great ends of all govern- 
ment — order and protection. 

Here, then, wo have the historical stand-point from which to judge our present 
condition, and the inevitable consequences to which, unaltered it must lead. 
There is no doubt that the continued agitation and harping upon the slavery 
question in the noAi-slaveholding States for the space of nearly a third of a cen- 
tury, and more than one third of the period of our national existence, has deeply 
affected the southern attachment to the Union ; that it has arrayed the two 
geographical sections of the country against each other ; that it has separated 
religious communities ; that it has planted distrusfand hatred in northern and 
southern hearts, and created that sense of insecurity and injustice to the latter 
which is less tolerable than a state of open warfare against a declared enemy. 
Practically, it is worse than idle to say that a conservative sentiment pervades a 
argc portion of the people of the northern States, when the fact stands out in 
bold relief that the dominant Republican party lives there alone and thrives by 
the agitation of the slavery question ; and that, as a party, it is bound to cherish 



6 

that by wliicli it lives and prospers. It is as possible to live without food as for 
a thorough Ecpublican to exist without the agitation of " the slavery question.'- 
^^unibers of intelligent Eepublicans are no doubt fully aware of the enormity of 
their doctrines, and believe in them no more than the augurs of Eome believed 
in their own prophesies ; but they find anti-slavery sentiments the means of 
acquiring popularity, influence, and power ; and they do not, therefore, think it 
worth while to use their talents and intellectual capacities in the far less remune- 
rative efforts of sincere and judicious statesmanship. It is at all times a more 
facile task to excite passions than to satisfy reason. 

It cannot, however, be doubted that there is a strong conservative feeling in 
many members of the Republican party ; and that ground giay be shared, to 
some extent, by the President elect ; but it is to be feared it may be confined to 
a very strong desire to preserve the Union without surrendering any of the 
cardinal points of the Republican faith. All such conservatism, it is needless 
to say, at this time, is by itself of small practical value. The southern States 
are not willing to trust their destiny or that of this great nation to such conser- 
vatism. They require more than a mere promise to feel sure there will be an 
abstinence from wrong doing. They ask a public recognition of principles, and 
an agreement which will render injustice impossible, or at least highly improbable ;^ 
something which shall not grant to our brethren of the South, from political 
charity^ what the Constitution secures to them as a right. 

Senators, we are not here a constituent assembly. We have not met to frame a 
Constitution, or to confide the drawing up of such an instrument to a mere plu- 
rality of votes. We are already organized as a definite constitutional Govern- 
ment ; as a confederate Republic ; and we are bound to preserve that Govern- 
ment in its true spirit, and with all the checks and balances which protect the 
minority from the encroachments of the arbitrary will of the majority. Nothing 
is more natural than that the South, whose protest against gratuitous and inex- 
cusable interference has been sounding in our ears for more than thirty years, 
should now be clamorous to secure, beyond contingency, her rights, resorting 
even to armed revolution, rather than continue in a state of perpetual political 
warfare, and personal insecurity. 

It is in vain for us of the North to boast of our greater physical power and 
material resources. The men of the South are our own brethren ; they belong 
to the same Anglo-Saxon race, and will not be intimidated, but rather aroused, 
by such an appeal to mere numerical disparity. Such devices are not only 
unworthy of us, but are at all times absolutely wicked and criminal. Sir, if 
questions nearer home should hereafter divide our own community of votes, who 
shall say that some men of turbulent spirit, some would-be leaders, inspired 
with the supremacy of numbers, may not institute unpleasant comparisons be- 
tween what the many want and the few refuse ? The few are always pronounced 
selfish, and the m ny always claim in behalf of public justice ; for justice, ac- 
cor ing to the satirical expounder of Athenian freedom, (Aristophanes,) is 
always " the interest of the majority,^' It behooves us of the North not to 



carry our numerical arguments in behalf of tuc negro too tar, lest ^-ome one 
may hereafter apply them to other themes " in the interest of society," and to 
classes of men not distinguished from u«, by the aristocratic element of color. 

To reiterate, our Government is one of reason ; of voluntary submission to 
law : and it can exist only so long as it is true to itself and its great mission. 
It possesses from its very nature but a qualified coercive power, and it loses its 
character, ceases to be a free Government within the meaning of the Constitu- 
tion, vrhen it employs force for its own maintenance. If the southern States — 
believing tlieir institutions, the property and lives of their own citizens, no 
longer safe in the Union, choose to separate and conduct a government of their 
own, no exercise of power vested in the President of the United States or in 
Congress can prevent it, however disastrous to public welfare and damning to 
national reputation such a separation may prove to the aggregate of the Ameri- 
can people. I consider it a work of supererogation to enter at all upon the 
" constitutionality " of such a question. 

Let me not be understood as subscribing to the doctrine so often enunciated 
on this floor, that there is no power in the Government of the United States to 
enforce its own written and acknowledged laws. Sir, I will never so libel my 
own Government, or the memory of the illustrious men who made it. There is 
power, conipletc and adequate, to secure obedience to the law from any disor- 
derly community, or the more serious end of enforcing the letter of the 
laws of tlie United States in one State in actual revolt. But the 
application of such power is always within the discretion of the Government, 
and the necessity and consequences must be considered. "When, therefore, not 
a comnuuiity or a single State, but many States, acting in unison, and with the 
heartfelt sympathies of even others comprising the Confederation, rise up in 
revolution, with the spirit of one miglity empire, talking here about force and 
coercion against such a movement is preposterous, idle, and suicidal. Ten mil- 
lion people, believing their hearthstones to be ruthlessly invaded, their domestic 
institutions destroyed, and their nationality degraded ; their equality in a Gov- 
ernment, resting alone on equality, annihilated : sirs, not all the armies from the 
time of the Civsars till our day could force them to adhere, to love, or to obey 
a Government whoso executive power is irretrievably and openly committed, as 
they believe, to the pursuits of such aims under the name of party principles. 
If such power of coercion were even constituuonally vested in the President 
and in Congress, we are called upon to say how can it be profitably exercised. 

It is very clear that as long as the North and the South quarrel with mere 
complaints and grievances, even to separation, there is still a possibility of their 
again coming together and drowning past differences in mutual oblivion ; but if 
fraternal blood is once shed, no reconciliation is possible. 

■■ Enrtli liath no rage like lovo to hatrwi turned." 

Success on one side or the other will stimulate to further action till all is lost or ■ 
won in an unnatural struggle. Appeal once made to the sword is irrevocable. 



8 

A substitution of brute force for reason trau&fornis, at once, a dissatisfied brother 
into a relentless enemy. The American people are neither prepared for, nor will 
they justify, such issue. The recent presidential contest was fought with no 
such aim. The people during that canvass could not foresee the issue as now 
precipitated — the first fruits of an empty victory. Pennsylvania fought the bat- 
tle on the tariff, not on the slavery question. The northwestern States could 
not have realized, in my judgment, their true position, or their action would 
have been diSerent. Settled in great part from New England and from Europe, 
their social distance from the planting States of the South made them lose sight 
of the intimate connections between the prosperity of both. Excited by a spirit 
of fanaticism, artfully engendered and nourished by selfish politicians, they 
looked upon the last presidential election as a struggle for power, not only be 
tween the North and the South, but between the great Northwest and other, 
geographical sections of the Uuion combined^ But whether the West was to rule 
by military force, by marching squadrons and battalions into the field to subdue 
their southern brethern, was not involved in the contest. 

It is my belief that the position in which the whole country is now placed, is 
one not foreseen by the North previous to the last presidential election ;. and I 
feel certain that the people, so far from provoking the result, thought it more 
distant than ever : that the northern mind was led into error throngli not suffi- 
ciently appreciating the Federal relations 3 and that, if proper time and means be 
aiforded, public opiuiou will right itself, and furnish, before it is too late, the most 
substantial proof of its conversion to true constitutional doctrine. Democratic in- 
stitutions are, from their nature, apt to lend themselves to popular delusions ; but 
they also possess the most efiScient and admirable nicans of quickly correcting 
popular error, of making amends for whatever wrong they may have committed 
and of avoiding similar mistakes in the future. All that is now wanted is time 
for reason to reassert its sway. The victory which the llepublican party so 
glories in achieving, is itself but a popular delusion, which will end, in my 
judgment, in the party's final destruction, never again, even by the admission of 
its founder and champion on this floor, to reappear under the same name. The 
fruits of that victory have turned to ashes in their mouths, and the deception 
will become as patent to the whole country as it is now to all a foreboding of 
terror. 

And now, sir, let me say to the South, that great as may have been their pro- 
vocations, the}' have as yet no right to suppose that remaining in the Union dooms 
them a hopeless prey to northern fanaticism. Though pluralities and majorities 
may have gone against their wishes in nearly all the northern States, much of 
that unfortunate result is due to the divisions among their own friends, and to 
the consequent distractions of the Democratic party. Yet the Democratic vote, 
even under these most disadvantageous circumstances, has been large, showing 
what substantial elements are still left in the northern States to build a great 
party upon: showing how few conversions from sectional to national principles are 
required to make a constitutional party of law and order at the North, the potent 



9 

shield and protection of the South. That party will stand by them in a peaceful 
solution of this whole question. It will stand up for their just rights under the 
Constitution in every State Legislature, in every county, city, town, village, and 
hamlet throughout the length and breadth of our land. It will combat in their 
very strongholds, and, under God's providence, cmsA the heresies and false idols 
which have been set up to misguide the people, teaching at their altars hatred 
and contempt of heart, instead of fraternal love and attachment to our institu- 
tions and laws. 

It seems to me but folly in the South to consider all as lost, and their condition 
in the Union intolerable, while they and their friends possess a majority in both 
branches of the national Legislature, and while the Supreme Court of the United 
States stands unimpaired, ready and powerful to uphold the Constitution. Con- 
ceding that there is cause for apprehension ; allowing that there are dangers 
staring us all in the face ; that the history of the past show a continued estrange- 
ment on the part of the North, and a continued and progressive inroad on those 
institutions which the South deems indispensable to her prosperity and happiness, 
why should she, at this critical and unfavorable moment, separate ingloriously 
from her northern friends, when, united, we could surely overthrow and put to 
route the common enemy ? The stakes are so tremendous ;. the moment is so 
pregnant with unutterable woe to the country, and even to mankind, that we may 
well be prompted to demand a respite, before we, as well as herself, are plunged 
into ruin and national annihilation. 

How can a permanent separation be justified to the civilized world while there 
is any hope of self-protection or safety under the Constitution 1 What will be 
her condition and prospects when she has accomplished separation ? I am ready 
to believe she is prepared to make great sacrifice cheerfully : but the adminis- 
tration of a Government must be based on something else than mere self-sacri- 
ficing patriotism. It must be conducive to the lasting happiness and prosperity 
of the people. A separate confederacy will require a standing army. Border- 
ing on hostile and fanatical neighbors, fortifications along the frontier are im- 
perative. All these things will require vast outlays and involve expenditures, 
diminishing tlie available means and consuming the substance of the people. The 
North compelled to do the same thing, we shall both grow poor at the same 
time. The very presence of hostile forces will necessarily lead to collisions, in 
which one or tlie other section, according to all the chances of war, may be 
victorious. 

But will such a state of things increase the security of either ? Will an enemy 
subdued to-day fail to renew the combat to-morrow, until the country shall be a 
vast military camp, bristling with arms to assert a principle ? The Union, first 
forcibly divided into two confederacies, by the example thus set, may be, at any 
dissatisfaction, subdivided into many, and they, after the example of Europe, would 
engage in mutual wars, contending for that chimera, " the balance of power," so 
ealously sought after by the diplomatists, and forever disturbed by every man of 



10 

decided talent who cannot but give a momentary ascendency to the power over 
whose destinies he is for a time called to preside. 

Secession, as it now appears, is the foundation for endless civil war, which will 
entirely change the character of our people, transforming their present peaceful 
pursuits and habits of industry into lawless adventure, reckless brigandage, 
and barbarism. Vv'e read history in vain, and study human nature to very little 
purpose, if we believe that, with such a general demoralization of our people, re- 
publican forms of government could be preserved in any one section of our glo- 
rious Union. 31ilitary commanders, sustained by cumbersome standing armies, 
would soon acquire the power not only to defend the State, but to rule it ; be- 
coming military dictators, they would use the power conferred on them for its 
perpetuation. Republics in name only, external struggles would be quickly fol- 
lowed by internal ones of rival factions and rival Cajsars. Believe me. Senators, 
the day we violently separate tolls the death-knell of our liberal institutions. 
They may exist nominally for a while, but their spirit is fled ; our people will 
have lost all vital strength or moral courage to cherish or uphold them. The 
body may retain its warmth for an hour, but the rigid and expressionless features 
tell the sad tale too surely. 

And what would be the financial condition of our country, North and South, 
in case of violent separation? The expenses of Government would be doubled, 
and as divisions ensue, tripled, quadrupled. Each State, confederacy, or con- 
federacies would have its officials, its foreign and domestic relations ; and in 
addition to these, relations among themselves, not always of the most amicable 
and satisfactory nature. The North would have its line of custom. houses along 
the southern frontier, while the South, acknowledging free-trade with all the 
world, would resort for revenue to direct taxation, with a retinue of tax-collec- 
tors. Each section — or sections, for Heaven only knows the number — would 
have its supreme court, its array and navy, its diplomatic and consular agents, 
and its separate treasury. All these additional expenditures would be entailed 
upon the people, already suffering a vastly diminished revenue, and lamentable 
falling ofr' in trade, navigation, and commerce. 

The southern States which, in a financial point of view, are now the most 
magnificent colony of the North — consuming northern produce and manufactures, 
and employing northern mechanics and northern ships — will exchange its great 
staples for the manufactures of England, France, and Germany; allowing for- 
eign merchants and foreign navigators to earn commissions and freights — thus 
helping to build up European cities, increasing the wealth and influence of 
European powers. 

That influence of European diplomacy and intrigue which has been k-nt aloof 
and shut out from us by our Federal Union, would soon make itself {;,'it in ail 
our foreign and domestic relations, until, with the mere shadow of sovereignty, 
divided into several confederacies, we should again be reduced to a colonial state, 
not with one European power alone, but half-a-dozen claiming our allegiance 
and disputing our possession.- 



11 

Even our title of " American " would disappear, and we be kuowu iu England 
as the tribes of Indians, only by their specific names. Wliat respect would the 
citizens of these isolated States or small Confederacies command at European 
courts ? How would the diplomatic agents of our dissevered Republics be re- 
ceived at the Court of St. James or at the Tuilleries ? Representing a small 
State is no disgrace ; but to represent the disjected members of a great ntitioDr 
at a court where the whole country had once commanded not only respect, but 
honor and admiration, is a position to which few persons would aspire, — to be 
regarded in London and Paris but as parade ministers or small suitors, and, at 
the best, but as intriguing against a portion of his former countrymen, humbly 
begging for what a minister of the United States would have boldly demanded, 
and no Power ventured to withhold without being made aware of the consequences. 
Ministers of our dissevered republics would occupy no pleasant place among 
even their diplomatic colleagues — some of whom, no doubt, secretly glad to be- 
hold them shorn of their former prestige and influence, pointing them out as the 
diminutives of former greatness, living assurances of the future harmlessness and 
good behavior of those same Americans who.':e progress had once so alarmed 
Guizot with the prospect of disturbing " the world's equilibrium " of power. 
We shall be held to a terrible account by humanity, even for having blasted all 
hopes of the success of republican institutions ; and by a monstrous national 
suicide, forever destroying the popular faith in self-government. Whichever way 
we turn, there is nothing but scorn and obloquy for our fallen institutions ; while 
despotism itself would draw a long free breath from the terrible and unanswer- 
able exanjple of our liberty. 

Mr. President, this picture so much more graphically drawn by other and abler 
Senators, of the forlorn condition of our country in case of violent separation 
and disunion, is far from being overcharged. It is impossible to depict the origi- 
nal horrors, desolation, ruin, and political annihilation which, in the end, would 
be the consequence of so fatal a step. Clay and Webster did not desire to lift 
the curtain which concealed from their patriotic eyes the dark prospect of dis- 
solution and disunion. They shrank from penetrating the future to behold the 
calamities which lay in that terrible vista ; but thousands of hands are now raised 
to lift the veil to catch a sight of the gloomy perspective, revealing a taste for 
tragedy in the country that is destined to grow among us, unless speedily corrected 
by the substitution of something more congenial and healthy. 

If we are to heal the breach which nov/ seems almost inevitable and lasting 
between the North and the South, the remedy must be applied at once. Family 
quarrels must be made up quickly, or they become chronic, and exceed in viru- 
lence and rancor disputes among strangers. It is natural for men to bate most 
what they once most loved and cherished ; and their former affection seems to 
give a lawful title to their hatred from the fact of its being wantonly provoked and 
resentfully contrasted. Let those who think there is no danger, that affairs will 
quietly settle themselves, take warning, lest supinencss lead them into fatal and 
irreparable error. 



12 

There are those who believe that, when a final separation of the States shall 
have actually taken place, it will be easier to j treat with the fragments of the 
Union, to reconstruct the Government, as it is called, than to make concessions 
or compromises now. I protest against so heartless and short-sighted a policy. 

Sir, if we],continue here our present stubborn course, there is nothing to be 
hoped But final dissolution, civil war, the breaking up of the whole country into 
petty Republics, breathing defiance at each other, without retaining either weight 
or consideration in the affairs of the world. Our sovereign people are not pre- 
pared for this. They neither desire, nor, if you give them an opportunity, will 
they permit it. A martial people they may be ] but this spirit only exists against 
an enemy, not against their countrymen. We have neither become so powerful 
nor so rich that we can amuse ourselves by making war upon each other. The 
three essential things required for war, said a great general, are " first, money -, 
th€n a great deal more money : and finally, all the money that can possibly be 
raised." War once declared and waged, all hopes of reconciliation, I repeat 
again, are at an end ; for if the South triumph, it is hardly probable they will 
surrender their vantage-ground by submitting again to the will and authority of 
the North ; and if the South were to succumb in the combat, how would the 
North enter into and enjoy the fruits of their victory ? They could certainly 
not drag the South back again into the national Union as free, equal, and inde- 
pendent States. 

What service could the Senators and members of subjugated States be in 
national Legislature of equals ? The first shot exchanged between the people of 
the North and the South itself dissolves the Union. With such violent disrup- 
tion, all sense of equality, duty, and loyalty, would be destroyed forever ;. and 
in the absence of these, our republican forms become sheer license, so intolera- 
ble'and so utterly unfit for the protection of life and property, that the people 
would in the end fly to monarchy as a meaiis of salvation from endless anarchy? 
lawlessness, usurpation, and chaos. The men who connive at this result will 
find themselves incapable of ruling even the section which now supports them 
in their career of aggression and fanaticism ; and, unsuccessful in their schemes, 
they will be as hopelessly abandoned by their present followers as they are now 
anxious to discard those who would implore them to retrace their heedless steps 
to save our common country. 

I have not alluded, in what I have said, to the position of my own State in this 
contest. The people of the Pacific coast breathe but one sentiment of loyalty 
and devotion to the Union. They will ratify any proposed amendment to the 
Constitution which could restore a sense of security to the South and peace to 
the country. If no such settlement can be had ; if neither the leaders of the 
Republican party, nor their followers in the northern States, will give peaceful 
guarantees to the southern States, then, sir, in my opinion, a large majority of 
the citizens of that coast will say, "Let them go in peace." Civil wrr cannot 
remedy the evil, and let any result follow sooner than all its horrors. W hile 
they would not allow the dignity of the Union or its laws trampled or spit upon 



13 

by any portion of its people, yet the appeal of ten millions of their fellow-citi- 
zens failing of regard, destroys so much of that unity, as will cause them to con- 
sent to any steps a sense of safety, may dictate, even to a final and peaceful 
separation. 

The history of our future career, as two Confederacies, as the result of a final 
necessity to give .peace to the people, is not, to my mind, so full of gloomy mis- 
givings. But a violent separation requires no prophet to tell its direful issue t& 
republican institutions. Peaceful separation leaves the two sections to pursue 
their pathway, not so mighty, it is true, as when united, but still powerful to 
command respect from the civilized world. As Mr. Madison said, '• They may 
be divided as to each other, but united as to the world." California, from her 
commorce, institutions, and interests, I believe, will remain with the free States^ 
[applause in the galleries,] with whom she is, in every respect, identified. Their 
destiny and our own is indissolubly united. And here let me say to the distin- 
guished Senator from New York, [Mr. Seward,] that the loyal people of that 
State will "[speak for the Union, vote for the Union, contribute their money to 
preserve the Union, and, when all other expedients fail, will fight for the Union,"' 
provided, the distinguished Senator will show us how, by fighting, we can pre- 
serve the liberty, fraternity, and equality, of our southern brethren in the Union, 
but unless he can perform this difficult task, we will never, never, sir ! imbrue 
our hands in the blood of our southern brethren. [Applause in the galleries ; 
and the Vice-President said he would be compelled to order the galleries cleared, 
if it was repeated.] Believing it to be the sentiment of her people that she 
will cling to any remnant of a Union, while one remains, I shall stand to 
my post thus representing her, using all the means in my power to avert the 
destruction of the Union while the faintest hope may exist ;. and rather 
than behold civil war and violence enthroned in the land, will consent to any 
just and reasonable proposition giving peace and prosperity to the country. 

"While I have voted for the resolutions of the venerable and experienced Sena- 
tor from Kentucky, [Mr. Crittenden,] every pulsation of whose heart is patri- 
otic, or will support the plans of either of the distinguished Senators from Illinois, 
[Mr. Doucii.AS,] or Pennsylvania, [Mr. Bigler,] still, in my humble judgment, 
the proposition of the honorable Senator from Minnesota [Mr. Rice] is better 
calculated than any, to give peace to the country. It ends the struggle over the 
Territories between the North and the South. "Popular sovereignty," "squat- 
ter sovereighty," " slave codes," " slave protection," and all other themes of 
discord and misrepresentation, must cease, when all concede to the States the 
untrammelled regulation of their own internal institutions. This obliteration of 
the Territories of the United States by State organizations, bringing them imme- 
diately under the clear provisions of the Constitution, and the other rcn^odies 
suggested or submitted to give security to the institution of slavery, will eer- 
ainly be promptly and aL-aost unanimously agreed to by the people I represent, 
and will, I believe, receive the approbation of a large majority of the people both 
North and South. 



14 

Mr. President, our constituents wait for us and expect us to act promptly 'on 
some proposition enabling their voice to decide the issue. Delay is baneful, and 
conducive to the M'orst calamity. We have already lost by depreciation of every 
species of property some ^300,0U0,000, and shall, if the agitation continues, 
lose $1,000,000,000. A non-intercourse law between the North and South 
already in fact exists, and will soon, if things are suffered to go on, be enacted 
in due form. Circulating medium will be deranged or even disappear, and our 
State treasuries will be embarrassed, and the Federal Treasury itself reduced 
to hopeless bankruptcy. Thousands of laboring people have already been thrown 
•out of employment. Commercial failures and manufacturing ruin already stalk 
through the land ; our farmers will soon be reduced to bartering their produce 
for articles of prime necessity. Our financial condition will suffer the reduction 
of the old colonial times, and the country inundated with that baseless trash — 
paper money. Emigration from Europe will cease, and the capitalists who have 
invested in American securities will throw them on our market, still further de- 
pressing the current rates. All private confidence will be destroyed, and every 
species of enterprise indefinitely postponed. 

How long law and order will be preserved under such circumstances, how lono" 
property will remain secure, and life protected, is more than I venture to guess ; 
but this I will assert, without fear of contradiction, that a Government which 
allows all these things to take place, and which, instead of promoting peace and 
harmony, leads by its supineness, partiality, or want of power, to the commission 
of every species of public and private wrong : to armed inroads on one State by 
citizens of another ; to bloodshed, rapine, and civil war — such a Government, I 
have no hesitation in saying, is not worth preserving ; and our people will make 
no sacrifice to prop up and support so useless and cumbersome a fabric. Let 
the discontent, the distrust, the hostile feelings between different sections of our 
common country increase : let civil war ensue, and our free institutions will be 
scattered like the sands of the dessert, to all the adverse winds of heaven. A 
government sustained only by force must, from its very nature, be arbitrary, or 
must soon become a despotism ; and, in the disorganization and general chaos, 
we shall be happy if we escape foreign intervention and are spared the humilia- 
ting sight of a European soldiery perambulating in triumph the streets of our 
•once proud Atlantic cities. 

For what reason shall all these calamities befall us ? Why shall we thus, in 
I lie midst of unparalleled success, in the full vigor of our national youth — for 
we have not yet reached even man's estate — become possessed of such a legion 
of devils, a prey to such insanity as to wilfully shatter our own household 
gods : to heap the ashes of our own hearthstones on our own devoted heads : and 
with spiteful hands and flaming torches set fire to and destroy that friendly and 
wide-spreading roof that has so sheltered all true liberty's children in the whole 
world, — casting to utter and eternal destruction the hopes and elevated aspira- 
tions of mankind 1 



15' 

I implore you, Senators, as others have done before me, by everything dear 
to oar hearts and sacred to our consciences, not to turn a deaf ear to the voices 
of the people, calling upon us from all sections, to pause in our political career, 
and to prove to the North and to the South and to the civilized world that our 
hearts and our minds expand with the magnitude of the subject on which we 
are called to deliberate : that our patriotism can rise above party considerations'; 
that when the honor, dignity, and existence of our institutions are at stake, 
there is no sacrifice of personal vanity or the narrow sphere of partisan politics 
that we are not eager, nay, proud to make to save the common country. 

Senators, if from the realms on high, it was vouchsafed by a beneficent Prov- 
idence, that the shades of our departed patriots, sagos, and heroes of the Revo- 
lution, might speak to us, for whom while living, they so toiled and labored, and 
spilled freely their hearts' blood, how they would implore us to pause and 
retrace our steps from this perilous brink of destruction and fraternal strife; how 
would the voices of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, bursting the seal of 
death from their still glowing lips, and his chill cerements from their potent 
hands, proclaim, as they did when living, that all true glory, and historic renown 
are based on an elevated love of country, on a pure devotion to its lasting inter- 
ests, and the abandonment of discord and strife. They would, they do implore, 
as living men may not implore, by their sacred wounds and scars,— by that pre- 
cious bond of liberty and proud title of American bequeathed to us to enjoy, 

and other lauds to dream of as a vision of peace and glory,— to be yet faithful to 
our Constitution and I'nion, — to that law of equal right and love, which is to 
nations the same saving grace it is to souls, — that law given to us, as all power- 
ful, by (jod himself; the only King they taught us, as a nation, we might ever 
own. [Applause in the galleries.] 



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